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The Cancer-Capricorn Polarity

In the womb…Free floating in soft, warm fluid…Cozy, calm darkness. From somewhere unseen and yet pulsing all around, a solid, stable rhythm beats a steady, soothing swish of hypnotic sound. Immersed. Basking in undifferentiated oneness with surroundings. Mother and fetus energetically blended with one another, merged, communing, cross-pollenating psyches and souls, imprinting on one another with no barriers or walls, affecting one another in ways too subjective and unseen for either to consciously understand. And it doesn’t matter. Becoming literally part of one another. No thought of separation, no desire for it, reveling in that oneness and sharing of self completely.

Then in labor, pressure, discomfort, being squished and squeezed out of the safe, sweet womb…Bam! Suddenly bright light, loud noises no longer muffled by the soothing fluid of the womb… Suddenly other experiences that are not about protection and communing, immersing and being immersed. Now the need to figure out the rules of this physical body, this vehicle—how to move it, take care of it, protect it, enjoy it.

The need to learn what is beyond the body…the structure and anchoring of ourselves in this world. What is this world? What is my place in it? What can my purpose be? If we have good support and nurturing, we navigate the slow human transition well. The womblike safety of mother and family gives enough security and stability that we make our way successfully in the outer world. We figure it out. We are grounded and practical, meeting life on its own terms and in ways accepted by the culture into which we’ve emerged.

Astrologically, that immersed and immersing womb, that protective bosom of family experience, is the nature of Cancer. The outer structure of the world, into which we must plant a flag and take our place, is the domain of Capricorn.

I evoke these images and feelings because we are in a period of time when the contrast and evolution of both of these polarities is being stimulated.

Jupiter Opposite Pluto

Three times during this current year of Jupiter in Cancer, we have an exact opposition between Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn, with the latest one Friday, January 31st, and still in effect.

Jupiter in Cancer asks us how we have underestimated the value of immersion and connectedness, retreating and taking shelter from the world in the bosom of cozy family and/or sweet inner self. What needs to be healed or rearranged in you to allow more of that experience? Enjoy the push into deep, womb experiences within your own self, and with dear loved ones. Let it open you more, so you can emerge out into the world in a different way when Jupiter leaves Cancer and moves into the next sign of Leo in July 2014. We need to reach for this sweet softening of Cancer heart, and healing within families (even healing and re-emergence of the family structure in society in old or new ways) while the energy is upon us. Lean on it, let it change you, be transformed by it.

Pluto in Capricorn seeks to transform the way we anchor ourselves out in the world, in society, and also to transform the underlying structure of society itself. The opposition of these planets may cause experiences of a clash between these two polarities, asking you to heal your relationship to one or both poles.

As with all planetary stimulation, the deeper alchemy is aided through feeling and facilitating the shifts taking place within ourselves and our lives. I have the image of a woman walking down a crowded sidewalk with a beloved mother. Some unknown businessman purposefully charges down the sidewalk unaware of others around him, and BOOM! He crashes against her, knocking her into her mother. He barely stops to notice the effect he’s had. In this analogy, the shifting foundation of life is the business man—circumstances that throw us into a closer relationship with family, or perhaps with our own deep inner self.

Let it happen. Isn’t it beautiful to imagine that as our world shifts around us, we might lean in to our loved ones? That we might come into a closer and cozy bond of being in it all together and having each other’s backs?

At the deepest level where Pluto in Capricorn is pulling up the fabric and infrastructure of societies in these 16 years (+ or -), the message is clear and perhaps unnerving: Life isn't what you thought it was. And it ismore than we currently think it is.

Whatever that picture was to us, it is changing, and hopefully in a more expanded, evolved way. Wouldn’t it be interesting and beautiful to deeply integrate the understanding that we are all one human family (Jupiter in Cancer)? To literally change our way of thinking about the world in which we find ourselves (Pluto in Capricorn)? To change the aggressively competitive way we take ourselves into the world, feeling it is “us” against “them”? To more deeply integrate the understanding that each society and individual is different, yes, but perhaps all accepted much more deeply.

Can we recognize that it is our deepest fears that cause our rigidity, our dogmatism, our walls and judgments that keep “us” in and “others” out? Can we see the destructive effect of our fear of what is “out there” and different from our own family, tribe, country, and inner comfort?

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces

Our first Mercury Retrograde of 2014 begins on Feb 6, 2014, at 3 degrees of Pisces. Mercury will pause to resume direct motion on February 28th at 18 degrees of Aquarius.

I wrote above about the polarity of Cancer and Capricorn. This is a time when we are literally understanding the general and basic differences between men and women more deeply…the nature and instinct of women, archetypally, to immerse others and to be immersed. The nature and instinct of men, archetypally, to forge out into the structure of the world, needing to separate from the immersion in order to get “out there” untethered, until he is pulled back by longing for bits of immersion with the feminine.

And now I invite you even deeper, for this is also the dance in our evolving process of being in the world and then retreating to commune with our soul. In the same way that we play out that polarity between male and female, even between parent and child, we dance in and out of that relationship with our own higher self. I speak now of Pisces’ realm, in which any negative facets of the ego structure—which is necessary to function effectively in the world—dissolve. At the same time, as we build a stronger spiritual practice over time, we actually anchor more of our divine nature into our physical life, into our personality and our expression and function out in the world.

Our own nature and comfort with merging and being immersed will have much to say about how comfortable we are diving deep into the experience of God. Ahaaa, my friends! Intimacy and closeness with our loved ones and family, and with our own deep self, is important practice and development for that ultimate dissolution of ego and oneness with God. The process of setting part of ourselves aside to make way for another, literally paves the way for letting more of our limited nature give way to Sat Nam and Har Nam within us. If we fight and struggle for separateness and differentiation, connection with Oneness is not so easy. We are all at different points along this spectrum of immersion and blending, and we all have something to learn from each other.

These are concepts of a very high, refined vibration. They can be hard to mentally understand. Perhaps we might allow this Mercury Retrograde period in Pisces to move in us, opening us to these experiences of Greater Immersion into Oneness.

Into my mind comes the Biblical story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36). In the Bible story, Jesus is praying to God as he awaits the results of Judas’ betrayal, and his destined delivery to the coming crucifixion. He asked the disciples to watch and pray with him for one hour, as he went off a short distance to pray, asking to let his fate unfold differently if it is God’s will. And when Jesus paused his prayer to come see the disciples, they were asleep. He asked them, “Could you not wait with me one hour?”

This happened more than once. The word “Gethsemane” comes from the Hebrew word for a press that is used to extract soothing, healing salves from oil. Metaphysically, the story of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane reflects “the struggle that takes place within the consciousness when Truth is realized as the one reality. All the good is pressed out and saved and the error is denied away.

Ultimately, the Great Work for everyone is to incorporate the Christ mind in soul and body. The process of eliminating the old consciousness and entering into the new may be compared to Gethsemane.” 1 Does this not sound like our spiritual practice of Sadhana during the pre-dawn Amrit Vela (nectar hours) in the Sikh and yogic traditions? What is our relationship to immersing ourselves in something Greater and overhauling our ego associations a bit more? Will we give our heads (ego identities), like the five beloved Sikhs (Panj Piaare) of Guru Gobind Singh?

If we do that prayer, that meditation, that communion regularly and repeatedly, again and again and again, then this 15-year period of Neptune in Pisces (2011-2026) will transform us beyond anything we can conceptualize. The beloved Rumi called to us in his poem: “The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” 2 Who do you want to be? Son of man or Son of God? Manmukh or Gurmukh? Give it some more time and attention this month while Mercury works on a deeper integration of Piscean themes, eh? Incredibly beautiful humans (ourselves!) await our evolution into the future.

What to Do

Yogic suggestions for this month include:

Meditation for Interdependence (3) (Success and the Spirit: An Aquarian Path to Abundance). “The person who is most slave-like is the one who is trying to prove he is independent—because life is totally interdependent.”

Adi Shakti Mantra(4)

Aadee shaktee (3x) namo, namo

Sarab shaktee (3x) namo, namo

Pritham bhaagavatee (3x), namo, namo

Kundalinee, maataa shaktee, maataa shaktee, namo, namo

Translation:

I bow to the Primal Power.

I bow to the all Encompassing Power and Energy.

I bow to that through which God creates.

I bow to the creative power of the Kundalini, the Divine Mother Power.

Eleven repetitions of the 6th Pauri of JapJi Sahib, daily prayer of the Sikhs (“This Pauri dispels limitation. Recite it when you feel limited, cornered, trapped or coerced.”[5]):

Himat Kaur has a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Religion, and is an evolutionary astrologer and Certified Professional Coach. She offers private astrological consultations as well as life coaching, and can be reached at (813) 444-6285 [(813) 4-HimatK]. Visit Himat’s website and blog at EvolveWithAstrology.com. You can email her at: [email protected]. You can also follow Himat Kaur on Facebook at: Facebook.com/EvolveWithAstrology, and on Twitter: @HimatK.